


Dark Angel Plot Summary and Character Meta

by gigglingkat



Category: Dark Angel
Genre: Episode Review, Gen, Meta, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-14
Updated: 2011-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-22 14:58:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gigglingkat/pseuds/gigglingkat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Done as a summary for Supernatural fans not familiar with the series. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS.</p><p>THIS IS NOT A PRIMER. I had friends who were never going to watch the series as a fan and wanted help with crossovers.<br/>Section 1 - the Manticore myth-arc that occurs in both seasons in chronological - NOT REVEALED - order - SPOILERS! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!!<br/>Section 2 - Character meta - focused on the X5s, Ben, Alec and Manticore as this is where most SPN Crossovers occur. The Jam Pony cast, the cracktastic tie ins with Tru Blood, Veronica Mars and Being Human are not included. SPOILERS! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!!<br/>Section 3 - some meta/timeline debate on certain aspects of the show - Dark Angel rather notoriously changed tones from S1 to S2 and there was some retcon to the story. SPOILERS! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Manticore and Breeding Cult Storyline

**Author's Note:**

> The science presented is not real world science. At all.  
> Oh yeah - and there are major SPOILERS!

  
**Prepping for the End of the World**   


_Note: Although this is all backstory leading up to Season 1, none of it is **ever** mentioned until Season 2. This makes it a retcon, I don't care how often James Cameron insists it was the original intent. As a retcon, some pieces are not as smooth as they should be._

Thousands of years ago, a comet had a near-miss with Earth and triggered a plague. This plague wiped out a good 80% of the human population. The survivors were immune and somehow figured out when the comet would come back. They had the idea that if you weren't surprised by it, you could actually take advantage of it and rule the world. So they devised a breeding program/secret society to create a superrace.

For over 1000 years, they developed intricate rituals for breeding, symbols, secrecy and the sciences to find an antidote for the plague to use as currency to rule the world. By ritual, I'm referring to an odd habit of killing your first 2 children to study, testing subsequent children for immunity and killing any of them that don't have it. Yeah. Don't think too hard about that.

The breeding cult has two main symbols: (1) Manticore (a type of chimera), and (2) what eventually becomes a caduceus (medical sciences). At any rate, everything actually went well with this plan until the Americans came. (Hee.)

 

  
**Sandeman and the Multi-Genetic Trenchcoat**   


Sandeman, a cult leader and genetic engineer, rises in the ranks. His third child, Ames White, passes the immunity test and goes off to the cult's equivalent of a boarding school. In prepping his fourth child for the test, Sandeman ran his own DNA scan and realized the boy would die.

At this point, Sandeman seems to become the first cult member _ever_ to have a problem with the cult's "death to the weak" stance. Or, at least, the first cult member to successfully _do something to stop this crazy shit._

It's now turn of the 21st century, Sandeman has kidnapped his "inferior" son from the cult and run away. Discovering that the US Government is looking into genetic engineering for military applications, Sandeman joins up. The US Military's own experiments up until then are similar to the CIA's tests with LSD in the 60s. The experimentation is haphazard and unpredictable.

Sandeman now has the millennia of cult genetic breeding, his own genetic background, and a black-ops budget. He concludes that if every human on the planet were immune to the Comet Plague, the cult's plan would be nullified. The loss of purpose would mean they would stop killing kids.

Yeah. Don't think too hard about that. We never meet Sandeman on-screen, but the amount batshit involved in that thought process means I love the character on principle alone. I picture him inventing unicorns and puppy-sized elephants to spring on the world in celebration of that day.

Ahem.

So, Sandeman starts creating genetic enhancements for the US Military. Because, really, what could possibly go wrong with this idea? He, in essence, creates and becomes the Manticore Program.

He begins splicing human embryos with foreign DNA. The first viable result is a human/canine mix - Joshua. He creates another (Isaac) to prove the process - he also adds a pure synthetic gene splice to the mix. Each creation has a bar code with their experiment designation. The RNA for the barcode is perpetually regenerating (like hair and fingernails) so that even if removed, it will eventually grow back.

The military considers Manticore a success and expands operations. Super-soldiers are created immune to all disease and bio-agents. Sandeman slips the Comet Plague in, successfully creating within years what the Cult's been trying to for over a millenium. Then, Sandeman begins to run afoul of black-ops politics and the people behind the shadow government.

The Committee gets all or part of the comet and cult story from Sandeman (possibly under force, possibly not in full), promptly classify the information from others working at Manticore and offer to help Sandeman. This is not to imply they are nice people. At all. They are, in fact, planning a reverse. They want the cure so they can launch their own version of the cult's plan and rule the world _instead_ of the cult.

Sandeman is now trapped between two evils and is savvy enough to know it. He bides his time and continues making soldiers for the Manticore Project.

 

  
**Lydecker and Manticore**   


  


Colonel Lydecker is read into the Manticore Project as the original "super soldier" manifest. He is a true believer, as only a reformed addict can be. If you can send in 3 soldiers instead of 30, and have 0 casualties instead of 10, then this will ultimately justify any means taken to get there. He leads Sandeman to create completely human looking creations.

Lydecker is so committed to this; he turns over his late wife's genes to the cause. Max will have his wife's eyes. Sandeman is happy to have "Deck" take the lead and fades into the background. He does not reveal the truth to Deck - who is later shocked to recognize Manticore's symbol associated with the Cult.

The 5th gen of children are born. They are designated X5 and are the human looking enhanced soldiers Deck's been told they want. He's given a platoon of children under the guise of a psych experiment. He's trying to mold them into generals for the army Sandeman is building. The genetic splicing is not without its drawbacks, and the X5s are prone to seizures. It isn't revealed if Sandeman deliberately implanted the flaw or not, but he does take advantage of it.

Now realizing that Manticore is as twisted and evil as the cult, Sandeman pulls a three-card monty under everyone's noses. The X-Kids are all immune and Sandeman has come upon a way to have that very immunity be as contagious as the Comet Plague. He uses the seizures as an excuse to bring the kids in to retrofit one of them with the universal cure. He picks Lydecker's platoon as they are the "officers" and are being somewhat protected. He picks Max because Deck reveals a surprising soft spot for her - sitting at her bedside for a full night when she is sick.

(This weakness is the fanon hand wave for why Deck was kept from the twins. He must have been because he doesn't know what the escapees look like. It doesn't make any sense, because his second is shown giving Alec orders in Berrisford. Even if he weren't allowed to command them - you would think they would GIVE THE MAN A PICTURE TO USE. Yet more evidence of a _RETCON_.)

 

  
**The X5 Children (Max's Family)**   


  


The X5 children are raised as experiments. They undergo physical and psychological torture and abuse as the scientists try to map their limits. As abused children, they come to hate themselves and see the genetic defects/splicing side effects as Very Bad Things. This is exacerbated, when the X5s not responding to seizure treatment are euthanized. The children see it as SOP to kill the ones that have seizures as they perceive it to be intolerable weakness. (Deck later denies it as a child's misperception.)

Max's platoon then suffers a string of losses and Max has a bad seizure episode. Zack, who has been raised as their platoon leader, finally rebels rather than lose another fellow soldier. He mounts a partially successful escape and 12 X5s break out. The escapees become separated quickly in the confusion, but succeed in evading capture because...

 

  
**...The Pulse Happens aka never trust the technology in a James Cameron world**   


  


It is 2009 and terrorists detonate an EMP above the Great Northwest. In the chaos that follows, the US government mostly collapses and another Great Depression overwhelms the global trade markets.

Manticore is hit but not destroyed. (Shadow governments are apparently immune to global financial crisis - just go with it.) Sandeman takes advantage of the chaos to run away again or the military is hit hard enough that they can no longer protect him. It isn't clear, but either way, Sandeman ends up in the wind but his now-grown son is captured by the cult and reunited with his brother, Ames White.

Now, the cult knows just how badly it's been betrayed and enters into a chess game with the shadow government behind Manticore. Neither side want the truth to come out so they both hunt for Sandeman. No one can be sure how far Sandeman got in this search for a cure, but the cult keeps the "inferior" son alive as leverage.

Manticore pulls itself together. X6 and X7 series are begun with drastic personality inihbitions installed. All remaining X5s are given a 2 week PsyOp eval. Twins of the escapees are given a 6 month PsyOp eval and entered into a regimen with higher scrutiny and less group dynamic. (Alec and the others will no longer view themselves as teammates or buddies. They are all just soldiers.)

 

  
**Season 1: At last! Things that actually happen on-screen!**   


  


Years pass. Max ends up in Seattle where she begins helping Eyes Only and subsequently begins appearing on the radar for Manticore. Max is focused on finding her lost platoon. She knows nothing of the cult, Sandeman or that anything was done to her different than the other X5s.

Throughout the course of the season, she reunites with Zack, who has kept tabs on most of the other escapees. (I assume Ben is not known to Zack.) Re-indoctrination - a brainwashing process is introduced. Manticore has embedded several genetic markers in their later creations to ensure what happened with Max's platoon was an exception. The 09ers have varying degrees of resistance to the process which becomes significant as Sandeman would not want Manticore to coerce Max into turning against him.

  
**X5 round-up and the first assault on Manticore**   


  


Lydecker's continued failures prompt the powers behind Manticore to appoint Elizabeth Renfro to oversee Manticore operations. Renfro is injecting herself with transgenic blood/DNA as a youth serum. Draw your own analogies to Renfield and Elizabeth Bathory. She is either connected to the cult or Sandeman told her about them to gain her allegiance. She most definitely has more information than Lydecker and is working against him. She is psychotically sadistic and played with great, loving glee by Nana Visitor.

When the platoon was exposed and Eyes Only warned them all to go to ground, one of the ones who ran was Tinga. She left behind a husband (who happens to be Cade Foster from First Wave - another crossover with lolarious potential) and a child. The husband has been plastering her picture everywhere attempting to find his wife, but inadvertantly calling attention to their child.

It's revealed that Manticore attempted to breed transgenics with "ordinaries" in the past and met with "spectacularly mediocre" results. Tinga's child, however, is a budding progeny - making Tinga the first Xseries capable of passing on the genetic enhancements.

It's interesting because passing on the cure to humans is core to Sandeman's plan. If the children of transgenics are as fragile as they are reported to be, it may have been an attempt on his part to keep the "source" in the lab and make Manticore dependent on him. Considering the size and scope of the operation, not a stupid move on his part. He wouldn't be able to prevent everything happening but if they had to keep going back to Sandeman for test subjects he would at least be able to monitor everything.

The implication is that Max is not the only one in the 09-escapees that was tampered with. Tinga's ability to pass on genetic enhancements to her offspring is seen by the shadow government as a sign that she could be the cure carrier. Tinga is also subtly mentioned to be the closest to Max genetically - they share the same feline dna strand and paternal donor. It is possible Tinga could have been a backup to Max.

Lyedecker gets her son, so Tinga turns herself in. A potential cure carrier is too good for Renfro to pass up; she sends Brin after her. Tinga dies during experimentation. Max and Zack are too late to save her and Max herself ends up Lydecker's captive.

But the reveal, that the X5s he's been rounding up have been experimented on, breaks Lydecker's blind devotion to the cause. Lydecker believed the program's ultimate goal was to save life - not waste it for what appears no purpose other than token science. Not knowing about the comet or any of the reasons, he is appalled by the waste of resources. He is brutal, but not without purpose. He turns on Manticore and steals Max.

In _... and Jesus brought a casserole_ , there is a wonderful scene with a drunk Lydecker babbling at a confused Max. His entire belief system is shattered and he wants to shatter Manticore in retaliation. Max clues in that there are bigger fish at Manticore than Lydecker. She prods him to attack Manticore.

She gathers the X5s with Zack's help. (The X5s are Jessica Alba's RL brother and Nicki Aycox aka Meg Masters, yet another SPN connection.) Lydecker targets the lab - "All the finger pointing when you escaped will be nothing compared to what will happen if we take out that Lab." He's more right than he knows. Without the lab, even finding Max becomes moot. They will have lost Sandeman and the means to duplicate a cure.

The XSeries have been deployed around the world. The Washington State facility is an open target. The attack goes wrong and Zack dies for Max. She is captured, Logan believes she is dead.

 

  
**Season 2: The one SPN Fans watch out of order  
First thing we do - kill all the old bad guys.**   


Manticore recalls all X Series to the damaged lab for sampling. The X5s are forced to participate in a breeding program in an attempt to (1)replicate the success Tinga had with natural conception techniques and (2) rebuild the store of embryos lost in Max's attack. Attempts to rebuild via artificial techniques were attempted earlier and were a resounding failure. There's a sense of desperation and the feeling they've all but given up hope of Sandeman's cure.

Logan, heartbroken over Max's "death" last season, has declared all out war on Manticore. Caught between Manticore and Eyes Only, Lydecker finally sheds the last of his loyalty to Manticore and tells Logan where the base is. Renfro has been unable to get Max to reveal Logan's identity under torture (most likely, the reason she knows Max is faking her compliance) but does get a sample of Logan's blood during a shootout.

She then launches ~~the worse fucking contrived plot point ever~~ a plan to take out Eyes Only. She has her genetics team design a target specific virus designed to kill the owner of the blood sample. She tells Max that if Manticore is exposed, she will "cauterize" the site. This means locking the transgenics in and setting fire to the building. Max doesn't believe her at first, but Renfro is a convincing psycho bitch.

Max is convinced to escape and infects Logan herself. She takes down Manticore anyway. (Take notes, kiddies. Mutually Assured Destruction never works out.) Renfro takes a bullet for Max and dies, imploring Max to find Sandeman and saying Max 'is the one we've been looking for.'

 

  
**Meet the new bad guy, same as the old bad guy**   


So the cult - members are called Familiars and the ruling body is the Conclave. Manticore's shadow government is controlled by "The Committee" - which seems to be a Congressional Committee overseeing DoD black ops. Oh, and Washington DC _is_ still a centralized government, and the FBI _does_ still exist. We're just under continuous martial law... or something.

But no, there was no retcon _at all_ from S1 to S2. Really.

ANYWAY - the Conclave has infiltrated the Committee and embeds Ames White as head of the forces assigned to mop up after Renfro's death. He sets up a signal to have all escaped transgenics regroup. We get to follow a group of transgenic kids following that order - they are confused and know they took friendly fire during the attack, but have no idea what is actually going on. In the end, the training wins out; they go to the rendezvous point. Once they're in the open on a bridge with no cover or easy escape, White's men open fire. It is as chilling and cold-blooded as they could get away with at 8pm on a Friday.

First White and then Lydecker discover Renfro's file on Max. Lydecker follows the trail to an archaeological site where he's shocked to learn that Manticore has its roots that far in the past. He has a cryptic conversation with Logan but manages to say there is something different about Max's DNA - even for a transgenic. He also clues Logan into a now-ex Manticore genetic engineer who might be able to disable the virus.

White's reaction to the DNA profile is to order her captured alive. The Conclave want to know just what Sandeman did. Max and White meet and Max is told she has no "Junk DNA" and that all her genes are coded for some purpose as yet unknown.

Do **_not_** \- under any circumstances - google "junk DNA" and use the results in a Dark Angel fic. Or even watch the show, some things are just better left as _Whatever, Show. Moving on._

White's cover as head of the clean up operation remains intact. Max is his priority on several levels, but Alec also gets on his radar. (Alec switches sides almost immediately following Manticore's fall.) The Breeding Cult holds a ritual and initiates White's son. Max attempts to interfere and gets bitten by a snake carrying the Comet Plague. Cult members exposed to the virus will get sick, then recover rapidly. Max, to the cult's growing horror, fails to even break a sweat.

White secretly exposes captured transgenics and discovers that Sandeman made them _all_ immune, although the rest do get temporarily sick like the Familiars. Again, what makes Max different is the ability to donate/transmit that immunity. Now, the cult knows that all the transgenics would survive the comet's return. This prompts them to expose the existence of transgenics to the world and use Familiars to manipulate the public into hunting them down. Seen as 'freaks' and 'mutants', transgenics are quickly blamed for disease and economic hardship. White manages to have them feared as murderers and homicidal maniacs as well.

The exposure to the virus, or possibly just plain timing, (both possibilities are mentioned and neither is confirmed) causes runes to appear on Max's skin. They are in Ancient Sumarian - because Familiars are the only ones who retain the knowledge to translate them. It is supposed that Sandeman intended to teach Max but... y'know the escape, the Pulse, his going underground... shit happened.

Max encounters CJ - Sandeman's youngest son - who has escaped from the Familiars again. CJ betrays Max to Ames, but later regrets it, when Ames tells him what the runes on Max's skin say. CJ becomes frantic that Max is his only hope of survival and not only helps her escape, but becomes a human shield to stop Ames from killing her. It's interesting because Ames has never shown hesitation at killing anyone shielding Max before. He does genuinely love his brother.

Things in Seattle rapidly fall apart. The transgenics are openly hunted. In the season finale, (which becomes the series finale) White declares war and brings in cult warriors to kill Max. The showdown happens at Jam Pony and Max and the others escape to Terminal City (a biohazard zone in Seattle's old warehouse district.) Thousands of transgenics have gathered in the no man's land as they are immune to the toxins. In a standoff with Seattle police - who are dubious of White and genuinely not certain the mutants are criminal - the transgenics take a stand and unite under a flag designed by Joshua.

 

  
**What Never Was  
Season 3**   


  


Per the commentaries and novels - post series, the tide of public opinion turns. The mutants are now in the open and talking. Max's leadership prevents bloodshed at a couple of crucial points and the transgenics are now neighbors rather than faceless boogeymen. As people no longer see them as monsters, the public outcry fades away.

In the meantime, White has exposed his true motivations to his Committee appointed underlings. Throughout season 2, Otto has been his right hand man, in the finale, he is obviously questioning. Those questions become open doubts and he would eventually turn on White.

Max would discover that she is "contagious" and be given a transgenic equivilent of the common cold. Every sneeze spreads the cure. The cure to Logan's virus would be related. When the comet returns, it is a deliberately anticlimatic event, where the world is saved and only a handful ever know. The vision was to have everyone watching the "pretty" comet and have Original Cindy sneeze.

The transgenics would be recognized as citizens and begin finding ways to fit into the world at large.


	2. Transgenic Character Metas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deeper background and timelines for Zack, Ben, Alec and Joshua as well as some general meta on the transgenics in general. This is still NOT a primer! This was originally done up as a guide for someone needing to write the characters - but who was not a fan of the show.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am mostly posting this to see how the multichapters work.

**Max and Logan**  
The key to writing Max, or any of the X5s, is to understand that they are abused children. They are stunted emotionally - with very strong walls up - and can react violently when threatened. Max, having got out when she was nine, has just started to open up and make connections to the rest of the world. She is nineteen when Season 1 begins. She has just built her own "strange little life" with only a few casual friends - a roommate, Kendra, and a small, eclectic group of bike messengers working at Jam Pony. She does not - at this point - consider Jam Pony her job. It's her cover. Her real job is a thief until she meets Logan.

Logan is a Don Quiote. He doesn't care that he can't fix the world; he must continue to _try_. At first, he cannot understand why Max doesn't work to make the world better. As she lets him into just what went on at Manticore, he understands more and she begins to open up and care about others more.

As the abuse survivor, Max has a _strong_ protective streak for kids and families. She constantly feels "undeserving" and takes on the blame and guilt for things out of her control. But that same survivor mode can also make her self centered and focused only on her own survival. Max tends to take things at face value, a tendency all the Manticore children are later shown to share. They all tend to be very literal. Slang can have an hilarious effect on them. ("Whoa, Big Fella" generates a response of "Whoa, Little Fella")

Midway through Season 1, Max has reason to feel cut off from the other escapees. The end result is that Logan and Max are now focused primarily on each other and seeing the other as a means of redemption. Logan's crusading gets a broader scale. In many ways, Max has opened his eyes and he stops looking at the little details and going after the bigger problems. Logan argues non-stop for "change the world".

Max conversely begins to focus on the simple pleasures, because for the first time, she feels worthy of them. His type A personality and drive to help others often hurts her feelings. He is the one that finds the problems and she continues to help him. The original agreement - that she helps him to pay "in kind" for his searching for missing X5s - is dropped.

They get over their own set of issues and as the title character, Max grows. She has begun to care, about both the world and Logan, and this balance is why she is best equipped in Season Two to lead the transgenics.

Except for the part where they ruined it all.  /bitter

If you are writing fic: Logan is in love with Max and is more so as the season progresses, however, "Saving the World" _always_ comes first. In his own way, Logan doesn't feel he deserves things if others are suffering. He doesn't always see how this reinforces Max's belief that everyone else is more deserving. Even when he does understand it, it does get old quickly and he doesn't always coddle her and reassure as much as she would like/need. They are made for each other, but the edges are sharp.

Also - please, please, please - Logan Cale is Eyes Only. Logan is the _only_ person who _ever_ tells anyone. The only people who find out are:  
Bling - Logan's physical therapist/trainer - who replaced the muscle guy who died in the pilot  
Max - who sees him creating a broadcast as she attempts to burgle his apartment. It's actually open for debate if Logan would have told her on his own.  
Alec - who follows Max to verify she contacts and kills Eyes Only  
Original Cindy - who realizes Eyes Only was Manticore's target and since Logan is the virus victim, ergo, Logan is Eyes Only. It is never confirmed on-screen that Logan knows she knows.  
Brain - who recognizes Logan's eyes - startling both of them  
Mia - the PsyOp agent who coerces Logan into believing he trusts her implicitly

Joshua may make the same connection Original Cindy does, it's not ever brought up. Everyone else believes - or at least pretends to - that Logan Cale is part of the Informant Net. That Logan works for Eyes Only.

Do not write people openly referring to Logan as Eyes Only.

Onto the hotboys and sci-fi crack!

 **The X5s**  
 **Zack, the Platoon Leader  
aka the one everyone forgets about when Alec shows up**

In Season 1, Zack is the only other X5 we get to see develop over time - the others are all one shots. He is actually the only X5 that ever thought about escaping. If you stop to consider that there are thousands of transgenic children, that's a little awe inspiring.

Like all the X5s, Zack has no real concept of self worth. He's led to believe that the X5 children being euthanized are reflections on his leadership. This backfires on Manticore, as Zack becomes so desperate to save others, he can actually think the unthinkable - escape. It isn't so much for himself as it is about getting his charges to safety. When the plan is threatened, Zach sacrifices himself first to allow the others to make it.

He only remains recaptured for 12 hours. This is interesting to me, because he is  _still_ is not interested in personal freedom. He escapes because Manticore is hunting his platoon and he still needs to protect them. It is his sole reason for living, for the next 10 years.

Obviously, Zack has issues.

He tracks down the others and helps them get out of trouble and various relocations. He only makes contact if necessary and establishes ground rules to stay separated. Zack doesn't understand the desire to be together - he's happy knowing they're all safe. When he comes across Max, she is actively attempting to track the others down. Once ensuring that she is safe, Zack makes no attempt to contact her. He is concerned that she would risk the others, or tempt them to regroup and become an easy target for Manticore.

He is _still_ in the same evasion mode that he adopted that night in 09. He has been stuck there ever since. As Max gets more and more involved, and subsequently, more and more exposed, Zack reveals himself to help deal with Manticore. In turn, revealing he knows where most of the escapees are. (I assume he does **_not_** know about Ben.)

They _do_ have a better chance of survival separated, as they stand out as a group. But, he's completely missing all the things that make that risk _worth it._

Max's two worlds collide. All the Manticore training suggests she should leave Seattle and live a solitary, nomadic existence to survive. Logan's point is that survival is not enough without meaning. In the end, Max chooses to stay in Seattle. She's grown in ways that Zack cannot; he lives too cut off from the world. At this point, what Max has done is force him to see there's another option.

Zack Facts at this point:  
1) Although he cares deeply for them, he sees the others as his responsibility more than he considers them family. This is pure Manticore. I don't think that family is something he thinks he deserves to have.  
2) Although he pushes Max to leave, he makes no attempt to _force_ her to do so and doesn't threaten to abandon her. He continues to look out for her. His primary point is, that staying in Seattle makes it almost inevitable that Manticore will find her.  
3) When he leaves, he refuses to tell her where the others are. This is _not_ "punishing" her for not doing what he wanted. This is protecting his platoon. Max is part of a greater whole to him.  
4) He is obviously fond of Max, and is touched by how emotional she is to be reunited with him. This does not mean he's in love with her at this point.  
5) He is actually _right_.

So if you are writing fic, all of that means:  
Firstly, feel free to disregard. You can, of course, write what you want. I am just telling you what will make me stop reading and judge you for BEING WRONG ON THE INTERWEBS OMG. Please, do not have emo internal dialogue about what Zack feels. The character himself has no such vocabulary and pondering why he feels things, being envious of people who do, or trying to develop such a vocabulary is all out of character for him, if he is first revealing himself to Max. This may come up if you are writing about Ben or placing Alec earlier into the timeline. Zack does _not_ love from afar. If he falls in love with Max, it's after they interact.

So after getting to meet Zack, we find out that he's not only a beefy blond, he's a beefy blonde who's _absolutely right_ to be that paranoid. Lydecker shows up and closes a net around Max, threatening not only to capture her, but to destroy the life she's built in Seattle. Zack turns himself in rather than let Max be captured. This is a repeat of what happened when they were kids.

Max, who knows him best, sees this as Zack being Zack and only doing his duty to protect her. Logan sees it as something deeper and thinks Max feels (1)undeserving so she can't see it and (2) doesn't feel that way about Zack so in her oddly self centered way can't see him feeling differently. There is no real way to know, but I do buy Max's version. And as this is Season 1, she doesn't suck yet so she's still right.

Zack escapes Manticore and is emotionally raw from the experience. He forced himself to forget information on the others. He hung onto how determined Max was to stay in Seattle last. In helping him evade recapture and remember the others, Zack does express feelings for her. She turns him down very gently and he _accepts it_. There are three possible explanations.

1) (The simplest) Logan was right, Zack was falling in love with Max all along and that emotion couldn't be pushed out.  
2) (The weirdest) Max was right, Zack escaped during the initial phase of reprogramming for a plot that comes back in Season 2. He is shown in what is later identified as re-indoctrination - a process involving psychotropic drugs, telepathic subliminal suggestions and good old-fashioned brainwashing. In this scenario, Zack only _thinks_ he has developed feelings for Max. A precursor to getting him to go to her and allow Manticore to recapture her.  
3) (The combo) Zack was forced to deal with Max and felt affection which then got him through re-indoctrination. This becomes love, on screen, during the episode.

These all work for fic purposes and in any case, he is in love with her _now_. It should be noted that while he maybe slightly jealous of Logan, there is no bitterness or aggression. He has no use for Logan, but he doesn't see him as a threat to Max's life. The two part amicably enough, as Logan does help warn the other X5s of Manticore's imminent arrival. Eyes Only broadcasts throughout the northwest with the bar codes. It also serves to put Eyes Only on Deck's radar. When Zack leaves this time, he _does_ punish Max, by refusing to tell her any information or allow the others to stay in touch.

So if you're writing fic:  
(Same disclaimers apply.)  
If Season 2 has not happened, Manticore does not want Eyes Only dead. They _never_ know that Logan Cale is Eyes Only. This means that Zack would not have any reason to try to kill Logan. He could be jealous - but not homicidal. He might not even be in love with Max. To be fair, the show suffers greatly from the "everyone falls in love with Max" syndrome, but it makes me twitch to see it carried over into fic.

At the end of Season One, Zack shows up to help rescue Tinga. When this fails, he agrees to pull other X5s in and mount an assault on Manticore. Max is shot and the assault means there is no heart available to transplant. Zack shoots himself in the head to give them a heart rather than lose Max _and_ be captured. He _still_ cannot place himself over the others. If it has to be that one dies and the other has to escape, then Zack is the one to die.

Zack shows back up in Season Two as one of the many things they retcon and fuck up. (I am slightly bitter about sending the beefy blond to Canada)  
Manticore, after harvesting his heart for Max, kept him alive _for parts_. It is just as horrific as it sounds; they do it by embedding machinery replacements for the organs they take out. It allows them to extend the harvesting time and lets them experiment with cyborg implants. They implant a processor chip where his frontal lobe used to be. Like all Manticore "science", it is horrifically glitchy and cannot distinguish between memory, re-indoctrination programming, dreams and plain old day-dreaming or stray thoughts. To the chip, they are all memories to be cataloged and filed.

Being Manticore, they were also programming him to hate/kill Eyes Only - playing on his mistrust of ordinaries and planting false memories that Eyes Only betrayed them at the end of season 1, leading to their capture. It seems to be a continuation of the programming they started in season 1. The chip overloads at some point, causing amnesia, and when Manticore is destroyed, a scientist sells Zack on the black market as a gun for hire.

Alec and Max track him down and Zack finally recognizes Max. (He does not recognize Alec - another hint that he did not know about Ben.) As Zack remembers more and more, the more of the programming he remembers as real. He has 'memories' of Max and himself in love and spending romantic evenings on the run together. Then, Logan comes on the scene and steals Max from him. He then remembers that Logan is Eyes Only, along with the false information that Eyes Only betrayed them.  None of this ever happened, but Zack goes berzerk and tries to kill Logan. He even attacks Max, when she tries to stop him.

Max is forced to electrocute him - reseting the chip and restoring the amnesia he suffered from at the beginning of the episode. Zack is caught in a loop. Remembering anything will rebuild all the associations and send him after Logan again. They send him to Canada.

Such a waste. Also - they don't explain how that will be any better. Zach cannot distinguish reality from a _passing daydream_. How is that safe to let loose into the wilds of Canada?

If you are writing fic, feel free to fix that. By any means necessary.

 **Ben, the psychotic  
aka the only Season 1 episode the SPN fans watch**

  


Ben (X5-493) was a fanciful child who kept the others distracted from the hell in their lives with shadow puppets and stories. The stories involve "Nomolies" that live in the basement and drink the blood of X5s. They are based on the X2s - Sandeman's first attempt to make the transgenics appear full human. The results were so disastrous the entire series was exterminated. The X5s in Max's platoon encounter one of the few kept alive for observation. Ben makes them a demon equivalent. To be found abnormal is worse than death to an X5, it's a life sentence of basement confinement and endless inhumane testing.

A well-intentioned janitor introduces the children to "The Blue Lady" (Madonna of the Sacred Heart) and tells them that she watches over them. The children are fascinated with the image of her visible heart and Ben becomes convinced she lives in "The High Place" and will protect them, if they sacrifice to her and make her heart strong.

During training, the platoon is sent to hunt a convict and, due to several factors, they come to believe he is a Nomlie, who wants to kill them and drink their blood. They become like a pack of wolves and literally tear him to shreds with their bare hands.

When a body turns up with Ben's barcode, Max discovers that Ben could not handle the chaos of the real world. He has become a serial killer, still making sacrifices to "The Blue Lady" and convinced if he can just find a worthy sacrifice, the Blue Lady will make the world better. Ben's psychosis stems in part from the same selfhate all the X5s show. Ben is recreating the hunt from childhood over and over in his killings - with himself (his own bar code) as the victim.

Ben was fascinating to me in that it showed the X5s inherient problem with faith. Ben's faith is what drives him. He cannot understand how something as evil as what he sees himself as can be allowed to exist. The black and white world of Manticore doesn't mesh well with all the gray tones faith has. He goes on a rampage when exposed to the chaos of the post-pulse world. Lydecker has been covering up the murders for years and is under mounting pressure to capture Ben and eliminate the risk of exposure.

Realizing that, for once, Lydecker has the same agenda, Logan reaches out to him. Deck gives him the file on the hunt, including pictures of Max's feral participation in the original incident. They never truly explored this, but Logan was shown proof of how homicidal Sandeman's creations could be. It could partly explain some of his reactions in Season 2. On the hunt, Ben is intercepted by Max and they fight. His leg is broken and Manticore arrives. Upon his request, Max kills him, breaking his neck as he tells her about "the Good Place", where no one is experimented on.

Don't let this stop you from writing Ben as alive. Curing a broken neck is one of the least mind-bending things that Manticore would do. Seriously, look at Zack. There is no canon reason for Ben not to be alive.

If you do write Ben fic, the things to keep in mind:  
1) Like Alec, Ben is able to blend in. He is a successful serial killer and people who encounter him find him religious and safe. The priest finds him 'troubled' or 'questioning' but not psychotic.  
2) Ben is clinically psychotic - he has had a break from reality. He believes his own made up stories about the Blue Lady and her ability to fix things if made strong enough. He tends to blame his defects for her not protecting people worthy of her.  
3) As with many serial killers, he blames his victims for not being worthy of saving. He genuinely feels let down that the priest doesn't put up more of a fight.  
4) Although horrendous, it is possible Manticore _could_ cure him. Alec would provide a template for correcting any genetic defects, and PsyOps could possibly correct the Blue Lady fixation, or at least transfer it to Manticore. Ben spray paints the Manticore credo (Devotion, Duty, Obedience) on his hideout walls, he has incorporated them into his fantasy and they would be an "in" for Psy Ops. There are also pharmaceutics that could help.

Manticore eventually corrects the seizures in the remaining X5 pool. It was only euthanizing those it could not save. The horror that Ben and Max feel for the process is based off a child's fear and misunderstanding. It is possible that Manticore would see Ben as repairable and be motivated to do so.

It would be interesting to explore how a now-sane Ben felt about his killings or if he remembered them at all.

 **Brin, the Brain-Washed**

  
In one of the episodes with Zack, another escapee, Brin, is captured by slavers - there is a black market for trangenics - other governments want to reverse engineer them. They manage to rescue Brin, but she is suffering from progeria - a known Manticore side effect. She returns to Manticore to save herself and become yet another example of re-indoctrination. It's a good brainwash - she is still herself in essentials. She still considers Max and Zack "Family" and she still dislikes Lydecker. It's only her feelings about Manticore that are affected. It is home and everything good and pure. She is solely loyal to the powers behind the scenes, believing they are Max's best chance for survival. She feels betrayed that Max would attack Manticore. It's very, very twisted and I adore it.

If you are writing fic, Brin is the best example of re-indoctrination, not Alec. One of the points of it all is that Alec's love for Rachel _successfully_ overcomes the programming and they are forced to resort to memory suppression to salvage their soldier. Brin is a far better success story. She remembers _everything_ \- including feelings of family for the others. It's just twisted and delicious. It is also the first time we see Max fight X5s from Manticore - Brin kicks her ass and could kill her but because Max is family, she wants her alive.

 **Alec, the happy go lucky sociopath  
aka the number 1 reason SPN Fans BUY Season 2**

  
 **The Berrisford Agenda:** This episode does not air in Season 1, but the main events from it happen prior to everything else I'm about to recap. Alec (Ben's genetic twin) will claim that events from _Pollo Loco_ will cause Manticore to put him in another 6 months of PsyOp evaluation to determine if delusion/homicidal tendencies are genetic. The mission: Alec (either as a field evaluation or just in the normal course of business) is sent on his first deep cover mission to spy on Robert Berrisford. He instead becomes emotionally entangled with Berrisford's daughter and attempts to save them from assassination. His emotional involvement and rebellious tendencies get Alec sent to re-indoctrination - the same process Zack is shown going through. Alec does not remember the Berrisfords at all.

 **Life at Manticore:** He goes on several other missions - he will later mention them with Biggs. He is then assigned by Renfro as Max's breeding partner and is ordered to gain her confidence. Alec is in full "happy go lucky sociopath" mode - making deals on the side with the Manticore guards and bringing in contraband from his away missions in for cash. Max is not impressed, but as she takes people at face value, she doesn't perceive him as a threat. Then, Manticore injects Max with the virus and knock her out. They send Alec to wake her up and tell her he's heard that Max finally cracked and gave up Logan's identity.

As she has a bigger memory loss than normal, Max second guesses herself and believes him. She escapes with Alec's and Joshua's help and heads straight to Logan. So much here is tangled with my rant on the virus so I'll skip to Max fighting Alec. They are fairly evenly matched until Logan gets the drop on him. Alec states he is not interested in hurting Max. I believe him. Alec knows just what he is and is _not_ worth to Manticore and doesn't hesitate to run off when he sees the guards opening fire on transgenics.

Being Alec, he uses the money he had from his contraband dealings to get a motel room, cable tv, and a hooker. In that order. *pets* He sends the hooker out for food as a group of escapees shoplift from the convenience store. The shared barcode tattoo puts Alec on the run with them. He tries to tell them the truth about Manticore - he feels enough loyalty to them to try and warn them, but doesn't seem to know how to make them listen. They don't believe him and head to the rendezvous point. Max saves them and they run back to Alec, who is not thrilled to be reunited with Max, but helps with the injured.

Expecting an assault, Alec leaves, earning Max's scorn. During the raid, Max orders the others to leave and gets captured by White. The kids, once the immediate emergency has passed, realize what she's done for them and go back. They pass Alec, who is disgusted both with them and with himself for going after them.

It's interesting, in light of what we know about Berrisford, because the re-indoctrination did _not_ successfully stomp out all compassion. He was complete selfless with Rachel at the end - he was willing for her to hate him and to die for it, as long as she was safe. That concept of love was too strong for the re-indoctrination process, so in the end, they had to make him forget it and sublimate the tendency with behavior controls. What they did was make Alec forget to _try_ to help. He tends to do what he's asked to do, he just doesn't think of it on his own until pushed. He also has a strong sense of debt and balance - possibly Manticore instilling how much he owed them for existing. Throughout the season, Alec pays his debts.

Alec and Max go to Seattle (although Max doesn't yet know that's where Alec is heading) and the kids all go to live happily ever after in Canada. FYI _no one_ comes back from Canada. They all just live happily ever after. Apparently, Canada, like shadow governments, is immune to Global Economic Depression.

 **This strange little life after Manticore** : Alec sets himself as the fighter "Monty Cora" - a name he thinks is a clever play on Manticore. *pets more* This gets him rounded up by White and in desperation, Alec offers to hunt down transgenics for White. White is more amused than buying it. He plants a bomb in Alec's skull set to detonate in 24 hours and claims he will remove it if Alec brings him 3 barcodes.

Alec's still not truly a sociopath - although this is as close as he gets. He doesn't sell out Max or Logan, although he immediately goes to them. He also makes no attempt to attack Max right away, although this might be because he realizes she's his best chance of finding others within 24 hours. He hunts the visibly non-human and feral cat woman first. He calls her "sister" and obviously finds the process distasteful, but he doesn't show any real hesitation. He stumbles across a young X5 who is alone and completely trusts him. Alec choke holds the boy and pulls out a knife, but apparently cannot deal with the remorse and takes him to the hospital.

White calls him on it and kills the boy anyway, increasing the pressure on Alec to bring in a final barcode. Alec goes back to Max and asks to speak about a life or death matter - when she tells him she needs to find Joshua. Preferring to kill Joshua over Max, Alec goes along and attacks them both, only to be thwarted by Joshua's lack of barcode. Left with no other choice, Alec tries to kill the incapacitated Max, but can't do it.

For fic purposes - this scene is fascinating to me. Alec must look _so much like Ben_ to Max at this moment. He's even trying to blame his victims. That he can't go through with it - he's still able to be saved - prompts her to help him.

Max takes him to the ex-Manticore doctor working on Logan's virus. The doc is happy to help because he'll then have enough money to escape Seattle and White. There's great acting all around as Max suddenly realizes that paying for Alec to live means Logan will remain untouchable. As she weighing her feelings for Logan over the importance of a life - even someone who threatened to kill her and hers - Alec's face is dawning with the same knowledge.

You can just _tell_ that Alec knows if the roles were reversed, he would be sad, but unable to help Max. He fully expects her to let him die and is left speechless and awestruck when Max pays for his life. Afterwards, Max tells him to 'just leave' but he is obviously still reeling and strongly feels the sense of debt. As I said earlier, he will pay her back.

When Alec first comes back, he tries to payback Max the money through various illegal methods. Max is appalled - a hypocrisy that's pointed out by Logan and Original Cindy - and is generated by more underlying causes than any true outrage. Max cannot get over the fact that the other X5s are not like her and her platoon. She is harder on them than she is the Nomlies - who she is fascinated by and fiercely protective of.

Alec joins Jam Pony for the same reasons Max originally did - the sector passes obtained with the role, open the city. Once there, Alec adopts his own version of Max's "strange, little life" and on many levels blends in _better_ that Max does - another source of irritation. He looks out for Max and grows to love Joshua as much as she does. With Joshua, Alec quickly gets past the innocence and doesn't feel the need to parent Joshua. The result is referred to by the writers as "A Dog and his Boy" and is filled with crack and love.

Alec never views his role in infecting Logan as personal and actually respects Logan for single handedly pissing off Manticore that much. Logan tries to ignore him as he understands the source of Alec's attitude. Which is not to say that it doesn't irk him. Greatly. Logan has some great bitchfaces around Alec. What continues to baffle Alec is Logan's sincerity and "good-do-edness", he has no framework for it, but by the end of the season, Alec considers Logan, if not a friend, a solid ally and is greatly concerned when Logan's reinfected and agrees to donate blood without hesitation. As Alec is often shown concerned over exposure, it's an indication how much he's integrated into society.

With Asha, Alec gets a first flirtation with an "ordinary" that knows his secret. It was an interesting dynamic as he's unable to keep it strictly casual, which eventually leads him to put up a wall and shut her out entirely. Once he remembers what happened to Rachel, Asha has no chance of getting close.

Halfway through the season, Alec remembers Berrisford and in many ways, it only serves to make his walls stronger. Re-indoctrination couldn't kill a strong emotion like love - but Alec was also in a world of pain over it and more than happy to forget that. He exhibits the same self-loathing Max has and makes no attempt to explain himself to Berrisford. He accepts the man's hate as what he's due and refuses to ever discuss it with anyone. (With only a slight reference to the matter when he cuts Asha off once and for all.) He comes away from it with a firm belief that the transgenics should never get involved too intimately with ordinaries.

Alec firmly comes down on the side of good when he's mistaken for Ben and arrested for murder. It's the b-story of the episode, but it leads to a remarkably bullshit-free conversation with Max. She finally tells someone how Ben died and breaks down. She realizes that she's been such a bitch to Alec for (1) not being Ben and (2) for being a constant reminder of the brother she couldn't save. The episode serves to cease any remaining hostilities between the two.

 

 **Transgenics, Cults and Viruses - oh my**

  
The writers apparently decide that hard-core sci-fi is a dish best served with a ring of salted crack. The bulk of Season 2 is filled with the residents of Seattle encountering Nomilies from Manticores basements. These one offs include a bona fide mermaid (complete with hottie merman and baby tadpoles), another Joshua (Issac, driven homicidal by Manticore), a blood machine that convinces some idiotic teens that he's Lestat, and a bukkake monster.

I wish I was making that last one up, but I am not. It is called a "gossamer" and it is splooge machine that is too phallic to be described.

 **Joshua** : Joshua comes out of Manticore looking for Sandeman and under the impression that most of the people are like "Father" - leading Max to take charge of him. He's seeing everything for the first time and, as a result, paying closer attention than people - especially Max - give him credit for. He is _not_ a child nor is he mentally deficient. He has an innocence and a lisp which people confuse for both. His peaceful nature also adds to the picture. Max projects all her guilt and feelings of responsibility for the Manticore escapees onto him.

Joshua gets trapped by it. He has better insight into Max and can tell that she _needs_ to save someone. She is terrified of Joshua being rejected or killed - she is even hesitant to introduce him to Original Cindy and Logan. She finds him a house and cannot understand why her visits are not enough for him. Joshua doesn't want to hurt her but rapidly becomes tired of being babied.

Oddly enough, it gives Alec and Joshua something to bond over. Alec begins to reach out and, because he's not fooled by Alec's walls for a moment, Joshua reaches back. A Dog and his Boy really is the best way to describe it. If you are unfamiliar with "A Boy and His Dog", it is a Harlan Ellison book which [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Boy_and_His_Dog) can completely spoil you for. But the gist is that Joshua and Alec consider themselves family even without Max. Alec is definitely the baby brother of the relationship and is constantly getting them into trouble. He then runs away and leaves Joshua to deal with Max. MADE OF CRACK AND LOVE I TELL YOU!

Joshua meets Annie and falls in love. Alec - with his reservations about transgenics and humans - calls in Max who completely overreacts and drives Joshua away. Joshua is only brought back when he sees how scared Max is for him. (Max's inability to hide deep emotion from Joshua is a THING in the season - and a lovely bit of acting from Alba). White's escalation of anti-transgenic public opinion forces it out into the open. Annie learns the truth and while she accepts him for what he is, that very acceptance prompts White to kill her.

Annie's death is wonderfully horrible. Joshua has to hear about it from the news broadcast accusing him of her murder. He had thought he'd saved her. The group hug of Alec, Joshua and Max is iconic.

This leads to a confrontation between Max and Joshua, when he learns that she kept the existence of a Nomilie colony in Terminal City from him. At Manticore, Joshua lived most of his life on his own and taking care of others. He's being smothered by Max's love and after losing Annie, he breaks free and goes to live with them. Max is forced to acknowledge that she's been mothering a grown man. She breaks down, but for the first time, Joshua holds firm and leaves to join his "own kind" in Terminal City.

 

 **Mia and PsyOps**  
Okay then, we need to stop the depressing crap. Back to the sci-fi madness! Having shown us re-indoctrination and talked about PsyOps as the uber-brainwashing/torture/information retrieval department, the writers decide to show us a glimpse of it in _Fuhgeddaboudit_ \- aka the one where Alec is in boxers for the last 20 minutes. And sure it's fluff and crack - but it's _excellent_ fluff and crack!

Mia is a PsyOps transgenic specializing in "telecoresion" which means she can't make you do something you wouldn't do - but she can slip you a roofie and make you do things you wouldn't _normally_ do. It's subtle but done outstandingly. Max cannot be coerced into giving up Eyes Only's identity - a nice bit of continuity from the beginning of the season - Manticore couldn't get it either. But Logan will tell her himself, once he trusts her.

Plus, Mia is a _fangirl_. She's a dame with a plan, but she's not above making life wonderful for the people she's using. It's a cracked out version of Alec's need to pay his debts. For everyone she manipulates, Mia tries to do something for them in return.

Things Mia does not necessary to her plan, but damn fun anyway.  
1\. Make Max use the expression 'hurt like the dickens' - twice.  
2\. Make Normal share his dream about Alec the Golden Gladiator. In detail. In front of Alec.  
3\. Make Alec admit he admires Logan.  
4\. Make Logan admit he understands and is a little envious of Alec's devil-may-care attitude.  
5\. Make Alec and Logan admit these things to each other.  
6\. MAKE ALEC AND LOGAN HUG IT OUT.  
7\. IN PUBLIC.  
8\. WHILE CLAPPING AND MAKING "AWWW" NOISES.

This is why Mia is my all time fave. She is the secret canon slasher of Dark Angel. But seriously, the episode is worth it for the hug scene. She "lets go" halfway through so they realize what they are doing and awkwardly ... just... slowly... stop. Then, Alec, because he's awesome, sums it up as "... okay" and shrugs and runs away.

But Mia does help Max and Logan stop being emo for a day, makes sure Alec gets his share and lets Normal take him home for a gladiator dream. I love her.


End file.
